Finally: generational shift here for women in science

Faye Jordan has a unique perspective on the changing landscape for women in science.

Her mother was a dental nurse, she's an emergency room doctor and researcher, and both her daughters have taken up careers as doctors.

But their experiences pursuing these paths have been markedly different across the decades and highlight an arc of generational change.

Dell Yarham, now 102, "is a really intelligent individual", says her daughter Dr Jordan, but she never had access to a higher education.

"There was just no opportunity ... it just didn't exist," Dr Jordan says, though her mother would go on to train as a dental nurse.

Until: "As soon as she fell pregnant, she was sacked.

"I'm staggered by some of her stories of how culturally different it was for women. It's very different to that now."

Decades after her mother's firing, with one young child and another on the way, and working as a speech pathologist, Dr Jordan decided to retrain in her mid-30s as an emergency room doctor.

"My job-share partner and I were the first individuals at one of the major hospitals to job share. They had not allowed that before," she says.

"That was 23 years ago and that feels like yesterday. Now (flexible working) is just pretty standard.

"It's an amazing time to be part of that transformation as a woman in the field."

Dr Jordan now works across adult and children's emergency departments while also leading research aimed at improving delirium detection and predicting mental-health-related emergency re-presentations.

The generational shift has continued in Dr Jordan's family, with her daughters also pursuing careers in medicine.

Stephanie Jordan, 32, is a general medicine surgeon, and Alexandra Jordan, 23, is in her final year of medical school.

"My two daughters have had all of the options," she says, although she acknowledges some areas of general medicine still present "challenges" for women like her eldest daughter.

"(However) historically that would have just not even been a potential decision," she elaborates following this week's International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

"The doors have opened much wider for women.

"As a woman in a previously male-dominated workplace, I feel very well supported."

For physiotherapist and heart-transplant researcher Dr Lisa Franks, the progress is real but incomplete.

"We've come a long way in the last 10 years as females in research. We still have a way to go," she says.

Like Dr Jordan, Dr Franks is the recipient of a grant from the Prince Charles Hospital Foundation, an organisation dedicated to supporting research, equipment and patient care at one of Australia's leading cardiology hospitals.

Her work focuses on improving how transplant candidates are assessed and supported before and after surgery, driven by what she witnessed early in her clinical career.

"It kind of started with seeing people on the ground, what they were going through and then wanting to improve their care," she says.

Her own journey has included balancing research with motherhood.

"There's certain challenges that you have to think about as a woman and as a mum in order to keep things progressing," she says.

"I agree, it is harder … we certainly have a bit to juggle."

Still, both researchers say representation in medicine and science is improving. The barriers that once defined women's working lives are no longer the same.

And for Dr Franks, the motivation remains constant.

"I always think about my why … and my why is to improve the lives of the people who are our sickest patients in hospital," she says.